Google Photos is one of many pre-installed Google apps on most Android phones, and it has been abuzz with new features recently. The app’s developers haveredesigned the Memories taband are now working on efficient storage of all your photos and videos with features likestorage savercoming to the mobile app. The latest beta version also reveals another potential addition along similar lines — support for quicker auto-deletion of images from the Bin.
Google Photos: Everything you need to know
Meet the Swiss Army knife of gallery apps
When youdelete images in Google Photos, the app moves them to a bin instead of permanently erasing them from your device’s storage — a nice touch in case you have second thoughts after hittingDelete, or accidentally selected an image you wanted to retain. Photos automatically erases images that have been in the bin for longer than 60 days, but you can also force-delete them manually. Meanwhile, items that aren’t backed up to Google Drive are cleared within 30 days.
Quicker automatic trash clearance could benefit users
{count, plural, =1{Items in the trash are deleted after # day} other{Items in the trash are deleted after # days}}
After performing a teardown on the recent Google Photos v6.79.0.624777117 beta,PiunikaWebfound new strings of code suggesting users could soon get an option to change the retainer period from the default 60 days. The code string previously mentioned the 60-day limit explicitly, but now features a “#” placeholder for a variable defined by other elements of code. Google has also appended the “configurable” tag at the end of the new string, suggesting users will have some control over the parameter.
Although a user-configurable retention period sounds like a fine idea forbudget Android phonesrunning low on storage, a fair degree of ambiguity remains. For instance, the code doesn’t say if the 30-day retainer period for images that aren’t synced with the cloud would change. Moreover, the variable placeholder doesn’t reveal if users could set retention durations longer than 60 days, even though that might be counterintuitive.
We believe Google will allow choosing from pre-set auto-delete intervals, much like thedisappearing message timer on WhatsApp, which automatically deletes messages in the conversation after a day, seven days, or 90 days. However, more details and the final implementation will only surface when Google commences beta testing with a subsequent app update.
